Musing on the rise of “cheffy” pizza, using Los Angeles hit Gjelina as an example: “There may be a little too much goat cheese floating around the menu for my taste, but I’ve never understood why people get so annoyed by ambitious pizzas. It’s the same for movies. I’m unapologetically excited for Fast & Furious 6 (please watch goofball supreme Vin Diesel drive a car out of an exploding airplane if you are not), the movie equivalent of pepperoni with extra extra cheese, but I’ll take an ambitious but flawed film, like Life of Pi, over it any day. And so it is with pizza.” [Slice]

Richard Rosendale writes about competing in the Bocuse d’Or: “While we hoped to get to the podium, I had no regrets about our food. We went up against the world’s best and finished in the top third, which is a huge accomplishment in my book. I felt as if our performance conveyed we were strong competitors and that the USA would be an even greater force in the next Bocuse d’Or.” [HuffPo]

New York, not so happy about the James Beard Award nominations. [New York Times]